Top 10 cryptocurrencies in the world that you need to know about right now

Cryptocurrency is a phenomenon that has emerged globally in the last couple of years. Although the first-ever cryptocurrency to be created was the bitcoin in 2009, currently there are over 1500 such digital currencies are there across the world. However, certain elements are required in a digital token to be accepted by the global diverse cryptocurrency community. So, here we have accumulated the top 10 cryptocurrencies that you must know about; especially if you are looking to deal with it.

Bitcoin

Credit: publicdomainpictures.net

As we said earlier, Bitcoin was the first ever cryptocurrency to be created. It emerged following the financial crisis of 2008. An anonymous programmer or a team created this digital token under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. However, Bitcoin truly rose to magnificent popularity in just about last year. Although its value is rapidly increasing, the critics believe that the token is extremely volatile, has slow speeds and transaction fees. Currently, over 16.8 million Bitcoin tokens are circulating in the market, whereas the predetermined limit on the number of tokens is 21 million.

Ethereum

Credit: Pexels

The next big cryptocurrency in the crypto community is Ethereum. So much so that recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China has released its ratings for the public blockchain and the list puts Ethereum at the top, defeating Bitcoin. Unlike bitcoin, this cryptocurrency was created as a “world computer” super network for developing the apps, which would be capable of eliminating the needs for the third party companies, such as Google and Apple. All the apps developed on Ethereum are present on a distributed public platform. Here miners try to earn Ether to power the network. The co-founder of this digital token, Joseph Lubin had once stated that bitcoin surely laid the foundation for the blockchain technology but Ethereum has the prospective to become “a more programmable money.”

Ripple

Credit: Flickr

Ripple is comparatively new in the race of the cryptocurrencies and emerged to popularity pretty quickly in the market. It came into being in 2012. In 2017, it had even shot past Ethereum for a brief period of time. Ripple actually serves a different purpose and is, in reality, a centralized transaction network that the banks use for transferring money, just like SWIFT. The money that gets transferred using the Ripple network is later converted into the XRP token on one side and at the other end; it is turned back into the currency of choice. The management of Ripple believes that the XRP is a quicker and trustworthy alternative to other cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin.

Bitcoin Cash

Credit: Wikimedia

In 2017 a discord escalated between the adopters over the technical limitations of Bitcoin and that gave birth to an entirely new digital token with a new set of rules of its own and a new blockchain as well. This new digital currency was none other than the Bitcoin Cash. Some of the frustrated cryptocurrency miners forked this cryptocurrency by switching to new software. They hoped that this one would grow in a way that the Bitcoin couldn’t achieve. Although Bitcoin Cash has always been in the top 10, it has not yet been able to overthrow Bitcoin.

Cardano

Credit: cardano.org

Cardano is yet another platform that people use for sending and receiving digital money, making use of its digital token ADA. Alike Ethereum, its network’s goal is to operate decentralized apps on the blockchain as well. Ethereum co-founder Charles Hopkinson had created this digital token in 2015. This cryptocurrency is often called the “Ethereum of Japan,” as 95% of its initial coin offerings (ICOs) were Japanese. A group of international scientists and academics, who specialize in blockchain technology, manages Cardano.

Stellar

Credit: stellar.org

Stellar is nothing short of a success story. The cryptocurrency has grown 29,400% in 2017 alone. As Ripple’s subsidiary, the co-founder of Ripple Jed McCaleb and an ex-lawyer Jouce Kim launched Stellar after some internal disagreements with Ripple. Stellar is also a transaction network that boasts fast and competent money transferring process across the globe.

NEO

Credit: neo.org

This is currently an emerging platform. This digital currency develops smart contracts and assets on the blockchain. The cryptocurrency is often compared to Ethereum, as both these platforms share similar objectives. According to a blockchain investor Noam Levenson, “Neo’s objective, while ultimately utilizing many of the same technologies as Ethereum, is to be the platform for a new smart economy.”

Litecoin

Credit: Max Pixel

This is essentially a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. Many call it the little brother of Bitcoin. However, the most significant difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin is that Litecoin has a much faster transaction speed. The token limit for this digital currency is 84 million and also it has a more memory intensive mining procedure. Litecoin was launched in 2011 as the ‘silver’ to Bitcoin’s ‘gold.’ At that time, it was the second biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap.

EOS

Credit: eos.io

EOS is a blockchain platform that aims to dethrone Ethereum, as it wants to become the go-to network for the decentralized apps. The founder of Bitshares Dan Larimer had developed ESO. He had announced it at the Consensus 2017 event. Larimer had created this platform to defeat Ethereum’s lesser number of transactions in one second. The EOS-founder believed that the number was not high enough for supporting the ‘internet of things’ (IoT) in the near future.

NEM

Credit: nem.io

NEM is essentially a distributed blockchain and cryptocurrency that carries the signature XEM token. The NEM platform also serves as a server infrastructure. It was created on the Eigentrust ++ algorithm. NEM’s management wants to “push the blockchain performance further” by making it faster. Currently, 8.99 billion XEM tokens are circulating worldwide.

An avid science geek loves good coffee, owns a smartwatch and a fountain pen. I have worked with several major publications covering science and tech beats. I believe in explaining things in a lucid manner.

We track science and technology related news and serve you the same in a lucid, clear straightforward way with a non-biased perspective. We believe that jargons should be broken down into understandable bits of information that can be appreciated by our readers and is able to satiate their demand for all things related to the world of technology and science